Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

The human pathogen is viable independently from host cells or organisms, despite its strongly reduced genome with only about 700 protein-coding genes. The investigation of can therefore help to obtain general insights concerning the basic requirements for cellular life. Accordingly, has become a model organism for systems biology in the past decade. To support the investigation of the components of this minimal bacterium, we have generated the database Wiki. (http://mycowiki.uni-goettingen.de) Wiki organizes data under a relational database and provides access to curated and state-of-the-art information on the genes and proteins of . Interestingly, has undergone an evolution that resulted in the limited similarity of many proteins to proteins of model organisms. To facilitate the analysis of the functions of proteins, we have integrated structure predictions from the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database for most proteins, structural information resulting from cross-linking, and protein-protein interactions based on a global study. Wiki is an important tool for the systems and synthetic biology community that will support the comprehensive understanding of a minimal organism and the functional annotation of so far uncharacterized proteins.